The Other Side
by Astrothium
Summary: Naruto has been scarred. Sabutori realized that the whole "hero" thing isn't exactly working out. Day after the Uchiha massacre, and Itachi is planning to leave, Sabutori asks a favor. To train Naruto, taking her away from the village. Now, Itachi regrets not practicing training with Sasuke. FemNaru! Inherits the other side, meaning: acts like Minato, and looks like Kushina.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Hokage-sama, I have finished," Itachi's empty soulless red eyes stared at him. Sabutori couldn't stop feeling guilty, he only stared at Itachi sadly.

"I'm sorry, Itachi,"

"It was for the best," he said, a hint of sadness in his voice.

Just then, a little girl burst into the room, crying. "Ji-ji! The villager broke Mr. Foxy!" she held on to the remains of what looked like a stuffed animal. Itachi stared at her, wondering who the girl was.

"I should be leaving," he said, looking at the girl. The girl looked down as soon as his eyes landed on her, away. Itachi, his Sharingan activated, stared at the girl. She was afraid of him.

"Wait, Itachi," Sabutori said, getting the craziest idea, "Naruto-chan, can you come back later? We'll fix him,"

Naruto walked out the door. The thirteen year old boy stared at the Hokage, "I'm now a missing nin," he scraped his forehead protector, "now I am illegible to follow Konoha's orders anymore."

"This isn't about an order. In fact, the council might forbid it. But could you take Naruto with you?" that wasn't what Itachi was expecting at all.

"Why?"

"She is the daughter of the Forth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, and Uzumaki Kushina, and also the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. The council and every villager doesn't know of her heritage, and they think of her as the Kyuubi itself. She'll only grow up, facing hardships. I'm afraid for her safety, you don't have to take her if you don't want too," Sabutori said a bit desperately, "she's not going to grow up well. I'm afraid she might only think of herself as a weapon, or worse, a demon." his voice was barely a whisper now.

"She's been scarred for life, and when I found out, the villagers can't seem to contain their anger. They've done devistating things to the child, and she's lost her childhood because of it..." Sabutori was crying. He recalled the day, when he held up the baby, yelling that this was the savior that stopped the Kyuubi from attacking. But instead, angry cries yelled back at him, thinking the child was the Kyuubi. "I'm begging you, not as Hokage to Ninja, but rather, a favor for an old man."

Later, the girl had been slashed, her back, carved into it, was the word "demon." They spat on her, and left her to die. An ANBU found her, and burnt the wounds closed, afraid she was going to die before he got her to the hospital. After a while of recovering, the girl had found that the mark was a scar, even with the Kyuubi's healing rate. He often sat in her apartment while she was sleeping, and heard her cry, every single night.

Itachi couldn't believe it, the Hokage, crying for a little girl. He did remember hearing many bad things about her, and the girl had pranked the Uchiha estate, wrapping it with colorful colors. Of course, the Uchiha's had immediately taken it to the Hokage, and she was said to have been punished severely.

"Hokage-sama, exactly, what happened?" his voice said, astounded.

And he told him. About the scar, about her father, about everyone. And most of all, he told him about the fact that Minato wanted her to be treated like a hero.

"I will," Itachi said.

"Thank you, I won't be able to face her. She wants to be Hokage, and she won't want to go. But it's for the best. Tell her I'm sorry for not being able to fix Mr. Foxy,"

Itachi smiled at this. He exited the room, bowing. "My last favor to Konoha, even if I wasn't expecting one,"

The girl was sitting on the corner outside of the hallway. And she was staring out into space, clutching her ripped stuffed animal.

"Naruto-chan," he said in the same gentle tone he used with his brother, "will you come with me? I need to explain something,"

She looked slightly surprised. Then her violet eyes narrowed slightly, and stared at him. He glared right back, she flinched a bit. He sighed, realizing that it wasn't going to get her anywhere. He put her under a minor genjutsu, and ran off, surrounded by a high level genjutsu that made him invisible, along with the girl. They ran off, to the woods, arriving at the valley of the end. He sat on Madara's head, and put down the unconscious girl, taking away the genjutsu. Her eyes blinked again, she rubbed her face, which had three whisker marks on each side.

She blinked again, looking around confused. "Where am I? You, you kidnapped me didn't you? Ji-ji is gonna kick your-"

"Now now, no bad language," he said, waving his index finger, "the sandaime asked me to take you here,"

"Why?" a gentle breeze blew across, her red hair flowed.

"A very long story, now, I'm taking you away from Konoha,"

"But I have to become Hokage!" the girl said, pouting.

"I'm taking you away, because they all hate you for something you have no control over,"

"What?"

"I'll tell you when you're nine. Meanwhile, I'll be training you to become low jonin level, although that may not be possible at the current moment, It's better to aim high, and fall short to high chuunin, than aim low, ending up only genin,"

"Will I become strong?"

"Yes,"

"You will bring me back to become Hokage and acknowledged by everyone in the village," The girl said unsure.

"Yes, and the Hokage says he's sorry for not being able to fix Mr. Foxy, but I may be able to do something about him. Also, we'll have to do something about your hair, it's too long,"

"Why?"

"You'll also need to be disguised,"

"Why?"

"Let's go, I'll explain on the way to Amegakure, it's not a well known village, and we can hide there,"

"WHY?" the girl asked for the last time. Itachi sighed, "I'll have a lot of explaining to do. Forget about telling about it to you when your like, nine or something, I'll tell you now. Let's go,"

The two ran through the trees, Itachi slowed down for her, who was surprisingly quick for kids her age. But the Hokage did tell him she ran away from a lot of pranks. As the red appeared in the sky, Itachi slowed down, and the girl was a bit breathless. The two of them found a clearing, and they sat down, in the grass, and the girl sat down.

"This is where we're gonna camp tonight," he said, doing an earth jutsu, and a basic shelter appeared. He rolled out two sleeping bags, which he had in a storage jutsu, and asked Naruto to lay them down. So she did, while he cut the tree into a few pieces, staking them to fire formation, he did a Katon to light it on fire.

"Food?" she asked, her stomach growling.

"You hunt that way, I'll hunt that way, meet back here when you find something," he said, "no dinner if you don't find anything."

So she did, standing on a tree in the middle of a forest, looking around for anything, kunai in hand. A rabbit darted past her tree, pausing for a moment. She flung the kunai, trying to hit the rabbit. But it missed by a few feet, and she cursed, thinking she needed to work on aim. She sighed, sad, as she stared around for something else. So she jumped the trees for anything else.

As soon as another rabbit appeared, she flung another kunai. But it missed, again. Sighing in dissapointment, she walked back to the camp, where the strange man had an entire deer. He was roasting it over the fire.

"I didn't catch anything," she sat down, staring at the meat the strange man had, "I know you know who I am. What's your name?"

"Uchiha Itachi,"

"Tsk," she spat to the side, and roasted her hands in the fire, the moon appearing above the horizon.

"What?"

"Their all smug, they think they can do anything, 'specially Sasuke-teme,"

"Sasuke is my little brother,"

"Oh," she was a bit unsure what to say.

"It's the way they were raised, thinking that Uchiha's are always the best. It's a lie of course, that's the reason why most die in battle, it gets to their head, they think their unbeatable,"

"And you?"

"I will say, there _are _people in this world who can defeat me, and there is always someone stronger,"

"So, when are we gonna train?"

"When you can actually catch something,"

"Hey! That's gonna be forever! No one even taught me how to throw kunai!"

"That's a basic thing from the academy, how do you not know how to throw kunai?"

"They never helped me! They always helped the other kids, but they always said I was too stupid to be ninja,"

Itachi had never heard of academy teachers sabotaging a student's ability to learn. Although there was a bit, to the dead-last, it never went that far.

"I'll teach you than, eat up, I won't blame your inability on you,"

"Why not?"

"It's the academy teachers. By now you should be able to do such a thing," he took the deer off of the fire, and ripped off it's leg, handing it to the girl, watching as she devoured half of it. Though she may be small, she could eat a lot. He also ate his own.

"When are we gonna start training?" she asked, trying not to show excitement in her voice, but Itachi knew she was excited.

"Tomorrow, go to bed," she stalked off into under the camp, and shut her eyes. Immediately, she was asleep.

* * *

Itachi meditated, trying to calm his senses. He was a thirteen year old boy, who was taking care of a hated, rejected, six year old girl, while he was an a-class missing nin. Six years old, and she already acted like a sixteen year old, played pranks, but was mature when needed.

"Can't sleep?" a voice behind him said. He opened his eyes, facing a bright, full, moon.

"No," he replied. The girl sat down next to him, staring.

"What were you going to tell me when I was nine?"

"I think it'd be better if we do wait until your nine,"

She sighed, then said, "C'mon please?" her violet eyes begged, so big and pretty. Now how could anyone refuse it? But the thing was...

"It's best if you didn't know," Itachi glanced a bit right to her head.

"Please, please, please?!" they were dragging him back again.

"I'll tell you when you finish learning how to wield weapons. Not just kunai, but regular weapons," he finally agreed to himself.

"But..."

"It's going to take about a year, don't argue,"

"Fine," she pouted. Itachi was unsure what to do, so he patted her on the head awkwardly. Naruto looked at him, her eyes shining in the darkness. They looked ready to cry. But Naruto knew better than to trust someone immediately. The first pat on the head, led to the incident. The incident where... her back was scarred.

She got up, without a word, then ducked under the rock, to snuggle back into her sleeping bag. Itachi smiled, and after her snoring was faintly heard, he decided he should sleep too, because he had to train someone, when all the time, he had refused Sasuke. If he had accepted, maybe he'd understand. But there were more pressing matters. At the current moment, it wasn't exactly the case. He glanced at the stars once more, then ducked under the rock.

**A/N: I wrote this when I was depressed. So Naruto was tortured, burned, and scarred. Feel sorry for her. But Sabutori sorta recognized the whole "hero" thing wasn't going too well, and handed her over to our favorite missing-nin. I don't feel like writing any of my other stories right now.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Naruto woke up, someone pushing her over to the side, the sky was just beginning to turn from blue to black.

"Naruto-chan, wake up," a low voice said. Wait, where was she? She shot up, violet eyes meeting startled red ones. Then she remembered. Oh right, personal training. _I'm gonna become the BEST NINJA EVER! _she thought to herself, excited.

"We're leaving to Amekagure, hurry up and get up, I spotted two ANBU scouting the borders of whichever country we're at. We'll stop halfway in between the day, approximately two o'clock, then we begin training," Itachi said. The sleepy girl wasn't exactly a morning person. But after storing the sleeping bags in Itachi's storage seals, Itachi began running, Naruto close behind. The trees began dispersing more and more, so the two couldn't jump through trees without slowing down a bit, while Konoha had tons of trees, right next to each other, it wasn't too hard to walk on them.

"We can train while running,"

"How?" Naruto asked.

"Build up your stamina, improve speed, let's go," Itachi ran twice as fast as he was before, Naruto barely able to keep up. After a long time of running, Itachi was breathless, finding that Naruto was also, but less than him, which was a bit surprising. That girl had a lot of stamina.

"It's about time we started regular training," he said. They were in a mossy damp area, gigantic trees twice the size of Konoha's trees, soil spreading everywhere, and it was lightly raining. But the trees were too spread out to tree jump, and they were all different heights. Firs and many unidentifiable plants were everywhere. They couldn't find a single opening as they walked around the forest. So Itachi got impatient, doing a doton jutsu, plowing over all the plants, and a single, small, tree, and they were sitting on a flat area, the trees overshadowing them, protecting them from the rain. The two were bathed in a light, grey color, as Itachi set up targets, taking them from his scroll.

"We're going to learn kunai and shuriken. Oh right, we need to do something about your hair,"

"Why?"

"People from Konoha think I kidnapped you, and if you kill one of their men, then they will mark you, also, as a missing nin,"

"WAIT YOUR A MISSING NIN? I'M GONNA DIE!" Naruto screamed her head off.

"Relax! I became missing nin for Konoha,"

"How do you do that?"

"It's a long story, and maybe I'll tell you eventually, along with the reason why all the villagers hate you. And you need to disguise yourself, so either you cut your hair yourself, or I cut it for you," Itachi said. Naruto could have sworn she heard a sadistic hint behind his voice. Naruto had never cut her hair before, it would always be cut by the villagers, who thought she cared for her hair. But she didn't, it was rough, red, and an ugly color. She didn't even know how to cut it herself.

"Fine, you can cut it,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, if I look ugly, I can blame it on you," Itachi laughed at this, he took out a kunai, and began cutting her hair for her. Honestly, now her hair was cut, she looked like a boy in girl clothes.

"We'll do something about your clothes later, even though I brought blunt shuriken to train you, I didn't think about disguising you until after we left. But for now, you can wear my clothes,"

And it didn't end very well. Although her hair was cut nicely and neatly (Itachi secretly used Sharingan while a professional stylus was cutting Sasuke's hair, so he had the ability to cut hair well) she was wearing an over sized black T-shirt, sleeves reaching down just below her elbows, and the hem reaching down to the middle of her thighs and jeans that were roughly cut right below knee length (they cut it themselves), she looked like a hobo. She still wore her standard ninja sandals though, the only part of her that looked clean and nice, and yet, it was still dirty from stepping in mud every so often.

Despite this, they decided to continue training anyways. Itachi began, by correcting her posture, because none of the academy teachers would do so. It was found that she could through much easier, missing her target still, but managing to throw it straight, and it didn't wobble like it usually did.

After throwing kunai for a long time, Itachi moved onto shuriken, which was a bit harder.

"Keep practicing until you hit all five targets, both kunai and shuriken, I'm going to go hunting. If, by any chance, you finish, well... at this rate, I don't think you can," Itachi left Naruto by herself, who had a determined look in her eye. She was going to hit all five targets on the post, from thirty feet away.

Starting with kunai, she practiced, and practiced, missing most of the time. Finally, she got one of the targets, but the rest missed by a bit. Itachi came back, after hours and hours. A single deer was in his hand, as he dragged it behind him. He spied from a distance, watching as Naruto tried and failed, tried and failed. After about fifty times after he came back, all of a sudden, as though a magical spin, his sharingan still on, he watched as Naruto's kunai, each one, hitting the targets, dead center.

He came closer, noticing a small smile on her face. Then she went around, retrieving all kunai that was scattered around the trees. She took out her pouch, storing each one, then she took out her shuriken, and commenced throwing that. Itachi noticed that she was closer to target than before, and he knew, it was because after throwing kunai, she knew approximately where to throw it. He decided to give up spying, and came over to Naruto. He didn't say a single thing, as he took out his sword, slicing a small tree into pieces, giving the amount of logs he needed for a big fire.

Itachi unsealed a gigantic pot from his cooking scroll, honestly? The boy loved cooking, it was one of his hobbies, but he never got much time, because Fugaku was always insisting he was training and getting better. The only one who encouraged his cooking was his mother, but she usually lost the arguements of cooking to Fugaku. A wife always wanted to marry a husband who can cook for her. Fugaku argued a wife would always want to marry an Uchiha. She was not offended, since she herself, was an Uchiha, and marrying within the clan wasn't uncommon.

He made a suiton justu, gathering the water from the ground. The good thing about Amekagure was that there was always water. The bad thing however, was that it was generally dreary and always rained. A gigantic dragon appeared out of the ground, seeing that was the only way he knew how to direct water, and he made the dragon crash into the pot, splashing everywhere. Only a bit got onto Naruto, but Itachi was soaked. Naruto, who had been in the middle of her fiftieth try, was fallen over, laughing.

The blushing Itachi (he's still thirteen), "Shut up!" he was obviously embarrassed. Most people thought of Itachi as emotionless, not a man of many words, he was simply shy, and tended not to like showing his feelings. Once you saw the other side of him though, you'd be proven wrong immediately.

"Aha! Ha... ha!" Naruto was laughing too hard. It was simply too funny. Though Naruto was quiet, most often, once you got to know her, she was loud, and social. Itachi unsealed a few more of his cooking supplies, a table, then random ingredients for stew, including carrots, onions, tomatoes, even chicken broth. He took two y shaped sticks, and a single long one, stuck them into the ground, and hung the pot over it, and put all the logs underneath. He blew his lowest level gokyaku no jutsu, and the wood caught aflame (seeing it was actually very large).

While Itachi was creating stew, Naruto continued training, after failing to stand, seeing the comical scene of a dragon attack Itachi. Her fingers were bleeding, her eye was twitching angrily as four out of five shuriken hit the target. The fifth one always missed.

"Your holding it wrong," Itachi, surprisingly, was only waiting for the food to cook. Had it already been that long?

"Again?" she sighed.

"Here, this is how," he showed her, putting her finger in the right place.

"'kay thanks," she muttered, throwing the shuriken once again. To her surprise, all five hit. She grinned to Itachi, "What're we doing next?"

"More target practice," he sighed, as he set up eight targets, and one behind a large wall (using doton).

"How are you supposed to get that one?"

"Lemme show you," he said. He threw a kunai in each target, jumped up, flipping, threw a kunai up, then another kunai directing it down. Naruto's eyes got wide, she was amazed.

After a while of practicing (and missing the eighth target most often), the soup was ready, and they sat down, two bowls in hand. Naruto ate and ate, eating at a ridiculous rate, and after the eighth bowl, Itachi was beginning to become impressed, Sasuke only ate a bit, but Itachi always ate a lot during dinner, three bowls at the most, but Naruto was inhaling the food. The ninth bowl, the tenth bowl, who was this kid?

"Ah!" she said, after the fourteenth bowl, "that's the most I've ever eaten for a long time! Your food is really good! It's amazing! Wonderful! Thanks!" she patted her small stomach, smiling. Itachi mouth was hanging open, and he looked at the contents of the pot. It was all gone. Simply solo eaten, by Naruto.

"Erm, yeah, go back to training," he said awkwardly, as he did the same suiton jutsu, just making sure that the pot was further away. Naruto continued flying kunai. Itachi sealed the pot back into his neatly organized scrolls, as he created a small shelter, throwing the now unsealed futon down. Itachi decided he didn't want to fall behind, so he trained too, mostly strength, because technique wasn't a problem for him. He began practicing his new eyes, knowing full well he'd eventually be blind. He realized how painful it was to create black flames for just a few moments, realizing that was only going to make his eye's lifespan be only shorter. The trees were burst into black flames, then Itachi threw the still spreading flames into his space time jutsu.

He once again, resorted to training strength and speed, knowing he'd have to eventually learn how to use his eyes. Meanwhile, Naruto was gasping for air, she scratched her now short hair that was slightly uncomfortable, then decided she needed a shower.

"Ne, Itachi-san, is there somewhere where I can... take a bath?" Naruto asked awkwardly.

"Yes, I found a river nearby, over there, call me if you need me," he said, pointing, while doing one-handed push ups with the other hand. (Itachi happened to be too lazy to draw water, *cough* *cough* or perhaps he never thought about it,).

"Thanks," she ran off quickly. It was a small river, cold water. She slipped off her clothes quietly, walking into the freezing water, shivering a bit. But she was used to cold water baths, the apartment in which she lived in, the landlady barely ever gave her water at all. In fact, she specifically designed it, cutting off most of the hot water circuits from her apartment. But the burnt scar was stinging, almost soothingly.

She washed her hair, scrubbing it with the water, as more and more red hair flowed down the stream. She ran her fingers through her hair happily, liking it short. She shook it, water flying everywhere. Almost instantly, it was dry. She laughed at this, as her hair spiked up quickly. She ran her fingers through her strange hair, it felt... very strange. But her head felt ten times lighter, and it was nice.

After getting back to Itachi, they were both yawning, "We'll spend the entire day tomorrow, running, because then we'll be there,"

"'kay," she said, jumping into the futon, quietly, closing her eyes, instantly snoring. Itachi smiled at this.

* * *

The next day, they arrived at Amekagure, at who knows what time? The clouds were covering the sun, it was wet everywhere, and the two of them were soaked.

"Let's go find a clothing store," Itachi said, doing a henge. Naruto couldn't mold chakra very well yet, her henge's were still messed up. Itachi became a father figure of Naruto, spiky red hair, green eyes, and pale skin, but much taller than he originally was. He wore a regular T-shirt and jeans.

They casually walked down the streets, scarcely anyone there. The streetlights were on, barely lighting the way. Naruto was excited, a small smile on her lips, and Itachi was concentrating on his surroundings, making sure there wasn't an ANBU or anyone from Konoha. He knew anyone who didn't know the truth would be after him, really angrily, for killing off one of the most prestigious clans.

"Naruto, we're being followed," Itachi said quietly, after seeing Naruto look around, thinking she was being watched.

"What should I do...?" Naruto was close to panicking, she was often followed, but she was with someone who massacred their entire clan.

"Now son, we have to get you new clothes, those are all tattered!" Itachi said.

"But Daddy, I hate shopping!" Naruto replied sadly, getting what Itachi was doing.

"I know, but mommy will yell at us when we get home," Itachi often watched civilian families. When he was little, he always hated being in the Uchiha clan, who thought they were the best before they even proved it. He always envied those people, instead of, "Son, go training, now. Bring honor to the Uchihas,"

"Aww," Naruto looked disappointed. They rounded the corner, a clothing store on one side. They walked into the brightly lit, dry, store, wiping off their shoes.

_Damn, she's still wearing ninja sandals, _Itachi remembered. ANBU could use this fact to decide that Naruto was still at the academy.

"What's your shoe size?"

"I don't know," Naruto looked down a bit.

"Ah, whatever," he said, picking out a pair of leather brown boots, made for rain, since most things there were. He could feel the presence on the wall, easily knowing it was ANBU, for that was the level of their skill. Naruto tried them on, finding them too small. They picked another pair, too big. Shoe shopping was so difficult... Itachi really wanted to get out of there, the ANBU were annoying him.

"**Katon, Gokyaku no Jutsu,**" the ANBU found out his henge. Itachi became Itachi again, as he pulled Naruto out of the way of the fireball. Four of them jumped out, wearing different masks.

"Itachi Uchiha, you are under arrest for murdering the Uchiha clan. Should you struggle, we will kill you," the cat mask said, taking out her sword.

"That is if you can catch me," Itachi said, flying forward at an unreal speed, punching quickly in her face. She barely had time to raise her sword, and her mask cracked open. The other ANBU came at him quickly, as Naruto ran behind, close to the cashier, who was too amazed at what had happened, to run.

Itachi slashed the still defenseless cat ANBU from her stomach up to her shoulder. She fell down. Another ANBU came from behind, he quickly raised his sword, protecting his back from the tonfa, that clanged against it, vibrating both of their weapons, the ring still heard.

He turned around, quickly striking him through the heart. "Is it just me or are ANBU much weaker these days?" Itachi asked calmly to the other two ANBU.

"Bastard!" one said angrily, "**Kaze no Yaba!**" he held two fingers up. Itachi jumped back, knowing a long sword would be coming towards him.

"A wind type? Or secondary?" Itachi asked, as he prepared a katon jutsu to use against him.

"**Katon, Hosenka no Jutsu!**" the fireballs caught the used to be invisible sword, on fire, creating a much bigger blast, wind against fire, exploding in the ANBU's face. The other ANBU was defenseless as the remaining fireballs controlled by chakra went his way.

Quickly making hand seals, he yelled, "**Suiton, Bakusui Shoha!**" and all of a sudden, a large wave came crashing over Itachi, the fireballs gone, but the shuriken underneath. The ANBU widened his eyes, knowing he wouldn't be able to block in time. They came from all sides, wrapping wired around him.

"Which nation are you heading to next?" the tied up ANBU, helpless.

"Go to hell," he replied, biting down on a hidden pill in his mouth, turning into ashes. The wires holding him snapped. Itachi retrieved all the shuriken. He looked at the shaking cashier, and Naruto's open mouth. The clothing racks were scattered and ruined. Itachi went over to the cashier, stared at him in the eyes with Sharingan.

"N-n-no!" he yelled almost silently. The cashier fell unconcouss.

"AWESOME! THAT WAS AWESOME!" Naruto yelled, excited that this person was going to train her. "Oh, what did you do to him?" Naruto indicated the unconscious cashier.

"I just locked away some of his memories, no one can question him," Itachi said, calmly, "unfortunately, all the clothes here are ruined. Let's go to a ninja store to get better clothing,"

"Okay, but, won't he wonder why his store is burnt up?"

"He'll probably think it was a fire or something, let's go," Itachi said, sullenly.

The three remaining ANBU were quietly burnt up by him, leaving but a trace. They walked out into the streets, Itachi didn't bother putting up henge this time, knowing that the ANBU were gone. His forehead protector was inside of his pouch, and they quickly got directions to the ninja store from a ramen stand. Unfortunately, Itachi was unable to drag Naruto from the ramen stand, so Naruto ate twenty bowls of miso and beef ramen, while Itachi only had three bowls of beef ramen. No one telling him to be healthy here.

"So good!" Naruto smiled, shoving her face with ramen. He sighed, feeling that this addiction would be a problem in the future.

"Aren't you afraid of getting fat?"

"Nope!" Naruto smiled widely, satisfied. She had unusually sharp canines.

"Alright, let's go," Itachi put money on the counter, as the ramen guy happily waved them off, satisfied that someone liked his ramen so much.

They walked into the ninja store, bells ringing slightly.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

"We're fine... for now," he said, grateful the cashier didn't recognize him. Well, it's only been three days, the bingo book wouldn't be updated yet, would it?

Naruto walked down the racks of clothing, noticing there weren't ninja sandals. Then she remembered, it rained here all the time, they wouldn't have things that left toes wide open. She picked out a pair of black, leather boots, thinking that they were cool looking. She then realized she was supposed to dress up in male clothing. Pondering, she picked out a long pair of black pants, deciding between red and black, or orange. But she couldn't exactly pick orange, so, she went with black, seeing it was the best color. As for a shirt? What was she supposed to do?

"Damn it," she cursed out loud.

"What?"

"What am I supposed to pick?" Itachi laughed a bit, then threw her a regular T-shirt.

"Aren't we in Amekagure?" it would be cold.

"There is such thing as a raincoat, and a jacket," she sighed, walking towards the changing rooms.

After changing, she came out, looking like a normal civilian boy, but with a pouch on her hip, held by a belt. Itachi threw her a jacket, that looked similar to Kiba's. Itachi bought all of that, and a raincoat, seeing Itachi already had one.

They walked out, in full body raincoats, towards a random inn. Itachi bought the latest bingo book, finding that he wasn't in there... yet. He smiled at this. Well, make up for the money they lost, he looked at the criminals, deciding to go lightly, because an S-rank would probably threaten Naruto.

"Okay, today, we're going to focus on the center of the body. Meditate,"

"How?"

"Like this," Itachi crossed his legs in what looked like an awkward position, put his hands where his legs were crossing, and closed his eyes. Completely still. Naruto watched for a while, waiting for him to move.

"Wait, you want me to do it?"

"Yes," Itachi replied, flinching slightly.

"Oh... okay," Naruto sat the way Itachi did, and closed, and put her hands above her feet. It was rather uncomfortable, but she didn't move.

"What am I supposed to think of?"

"Nothing," Itachi replied simply.

So Naruto tried thinking of nothing. But it wouldn't work, because she was thinking. A twitch, an itch, it was slightly annoying. She continued sitting, feeling frustrated. But if Itachi did this and he was super strong... wouldn't that mean that if she did that she'd be super strong too? So she tried.

Sitting there.

Continuously.

It was boring.

Super boring.

_SHUT UP! _she thought to herself, then blocked out all thoughts and memories.

But it wouldn't work.

So she sat there.

Annoyed.

Angry.

Frustrated.

She wasn't supposed to feel anything either. Annoyed once again. _NO NOT ANNOYED! NOTHING NOTHING! _she yelled to herself.

Nothing.

Think of nothing.

No, don't think.

...

..

.

* * *

Itachi was staring at Naruto, she was twitching angrily. Then she stopped. He smiled. Success. Her breathing was calm, and she was completely quiet. Itachi sat on the bed, (there was only one,) and he laid down, closing his eyes. It took him weeks not to think of anything. But it generally depended upon the person.

* * *

A dark, dripping sound was heard, echoing through her mind. It was cold, and anonymous. She was suddenly very afraid, her hand slightly quivering in her mind. But she walked anyways. All of a sudden, a dim light flickered, illuminating the sewers she was in.

"Kit, what are you doing here?" a very low, deep, voice, said. Naruto fell backwards onto her hands, noticing that she was on top of water.

"U-um... who are you?"

"Me? Who do I look like?" from the darkness in front of her, a single, bloody red, eye opened, and it gradually rose, until the... fox, was facing her. It was much, much, bigger, than her.

"Um... why are you a fox?" she asked. The gigantic furry fox, smiled a toothy grin, his large canines glinting.

"Why am I a fox? I was born this way, of course,"

"Oh..."

"Come closer, kit," he said. Naruto walked closer, and all of a sudden, the fox stuck it's hands through the bar, attempting to grab her. She ran backwards on instinct.

"Damn, so close," she noticed just then, the fox was behind these gigantic bars, with a seal on it.

"So, w-who a-are y-y-you?" she asked, shaking now.

"I am the great, and almighty, Kyuubi," he said, waiting for a reaction.

"Oh! I heard about you. Weren't you dead?"

"Do you think I can die?"

"Yeah! The Yondaime killed you!"

"Ch, that bastard, I was so close to freedom. No, kit, let me tell you something, I cannot be killed. Correction, I can be killed momentarily, but I will reform. So the Yondaime sealed part of my chakra into the Shinigami, and the other half into you. So, here I am,"

"Oh,"

"Yeah, 'oh,' now let me free already,"

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why? Do you know what it's like to be locked up in a cage your entire life, unable to escape?"

"But you're evil! You're going to go back and attack Konoha though!"

"No, I'm not, that was forced."

"What d'ya mean?"

"Just... grow up, kit, I'll tell you later, and then crush you and your pathetic 'brother' to death,"

"Then I'm not going to set you free,"

"You weren't going to anyways," because it was true.

"Well, apparently I'm meditating to find the center of my body right now. Can I like... change what my world looks like?" the rusty sewers, it even smelled bad.

"I don't know, your mind represents how much hardship you've been through,"

"I see... well, I'm going exploring, see ya!"

"What a kit..." the kyuubi muttered to himself, "so innocent, was I like that once?"

Naruto walked out of the cage, wondering where each of the pathways led to. She walked into a strange cellar, full of barrels, rows on each side of the room. The left side had much more, shelves and shelves. Popping off one of them, that was on the right side of the room, the side that felt less foreboding, she looked inside, it was darker than black. It had the sticky stench of alcohol, that she hated, because that was when the villagers would attack her the most. Drunk.

It rippled for a while, then showed an image, from Naruto's point of view. It showed the villagers coming closer, knives and pitchforks in hand. Quickly, she pulled away, afraid. Closing the barrel, she checked all of the barrels on the right side of the room, seeing only her memories. Looking on the left side, she wondered what those barrels were.

Attempting to open a lot of them, none of them worked. Finally, she managed to get only one out. It was the easiest one, the least foreboding in the left side barrels.

_"I will not live long anymore," a darkly hooded man said, the sage of the six paths, "Shukaku, Matatabi, Isopu, Son Goku, Kokuou, Saiken, Choumei, Gyuuki, Kurama," he indicated my brothers and sisters. I was sad. It would be our parting day. We had fun times together._

_"Even if you are separated now, you will always be together, and the day you will return to be one will. Every one of you has a name and a form, different from before, and different from when you were inside of me. Follow the rightful path, search for what is the real strength. And until that day..." tears ran down my face. We'd be separated..._

Naruto snapped out of the strange memory. She could barely see what was happening. The rest of the barrels wouldn't open... why not?

Naruto exited the room, containing memories, traveling down the sewers, she found another room. It was completely white, and bleached. Not a single thing was in there. What was this room?

"Hey," a voice that sounded exactly like hers, but with a darker tone called out. Turning around, she saw herself, but with black eyes and white pupils.

"Who are you?"

"Me? Who am I?"

"Yeah,"

"You," the person across from her said.

"Me? How is that possible, I'm right here."

"Yeah, you are right there, but you are right here too, and I am right there,"

"You're confusing,"

"Well, I suppose you may say that, since I am you, so therefore you are confusing too,"

"Hmm, your strange, I'll talk to you later, bye-bye,"

"Er... yeah, bye," the other self said. Naruto exited the white room, finding more sewers. Itachi's voice was suddenly heard throughout the sewers.

"Naruto," it called. Her eyes snapped open, and Itachi was sitting there, in front of her, "it's night time, rest, we have to leave Amekagure, since this is where ANBU last found us,"

"Aww, man,"

"We're going to suna,"

"That sandy place?"

"Yes, that sandy place, now sleep," Itachi was asleep before she knew it.

"Ne, Itachi," Naruto asked, curling in bed next to him. (This isn't ItaNaru, Itachi's only 13, and Naruto's only 6)

"Hmm?"

"The kyuubi's inside of me, isn't he?" Itachi jerked, his eyes snapping open, staring at Naruto.

"Wait, how'd you know that?"

"When I meditated, I saw him, and he told me that he was sealed in me,"

"Oh, I should have known that. Well, now you know why all the villagers hate you,"

"Why aren't you scared of me?"

"Because you aren't the kyuubi, you're only the vessel. When someone looks at you, they see the jail, not the jailer. In fact, you're doing Konoha a big favor, but they still hate you for it. Because they don't understand. Of course, there are those who do look at the jailer and not the jail, but those are few, and scarce."

"Oh," Naruto said, quietly.

"Good night," Itachi left Naruto to think about this.

* * *

The next day, Naruto did fifty sit ups, slowly, while Itachi read to her on anatomy, and the structure of the body. Where one could kill, a partial death, paralyzing, or just temporary extreme pain. After that, she meditated for a few hours.

Right outside the kyuubi cage, she simply walked away, down the sewer halls, infested with rats and other thing. For some reason she didn't have to "look" for the room of memories, she just felt where it was. That one black barrel, she could open it. She decided to look over the memory again.

_"I will not live long anymore," a darkly hooded man said, the sage of the six paths, "Shukaku, Matatabi, Isopu, Son Goku, Kokuou, Saiken, Choumei, Gyuuki, Kurama," he indicated my brothers and sisters. I was sad. It would be our parting day. We had fun times together._

_"Even if you are separated now, you will always be together, and the day you will return to be one will. Every one of you has a name and a form, different from before, and different from when you were inside of me. Follow the rightful path, search for what is the real strength. And until that day..." tears ran down my face. We'd be separated..._

Naruto snapped out of the memory. The ichibi, nibi, sanbi, yonbi, gobi, rokubi, nanabi, hachibi, that was who her "brother and sisters" were. No, this was in the point of view... of the kyuubi? She threw herself into the memory once more, and again.

Shukaku

Matabi

Isopu

Son Goku

Kokuou

Saiken

Choumei

Gyuuki

and lastly, Kurama. Kurama, the name of the kyuubi. She looked at the memory once more, finding she could almost feel it, feel the tear trailing down her face as she was leaving "Father."

"Kurama," she muttered his name. It was a beautiful name, and it didn't feel right though. How could a monster... no, the kyuubi couldn't be a monster. Monsters were mindless creatures that rampaged anywhere, unable to think. The kyuubi, no Kurama, was simply bitter. Humans thinking of him as a monster, a freak of nature. But why would he rampage Konoha?

She looked at the next barrel, and attempted to pry off the lid. It shook a bit, but did not move. She pulled and pulled, the barrel wouldn't move, it only stuck in place as she attempted taking off the lid. Sighing, she closed her eyes, and snapped out of her meditation.

Naruto's eyes opened, and Itachi was there, a bag full of books.

"I got these from the library," he said, as he handed the books to Naruto. Most were on anatomy, some on physiology, others on strategy and warfare, otherwise history in some cases. "I'm not sure if I forgot anything you need to learn, but these are basic books, you can go further into it. I'm also hoping to train your stratigy by playing shougi, but we'll do that when we have more time. Practice your kunai on the eight targets. Here's the map, I'm going out for a while."

Itachi handed her a neatly marked map, including the libraries and gyms and other stuff. Amekagure, despite being small, was _extremely_ industrialized. Tall buildings could be used for many, many purposes Their communication systems and technology was the best, but very isolated from the rest of the world.

"We're leaving tomorrow, I simply heard there was a missing nin here, and I thought I might pick up some money,"

"Kay, bye," Naruto replied cheerily, looking at the map where Itachi marked the training grounds he set up. She hurried over there quickly.

* * *

"I see you have a small rat to take care of," a deep voice echoed.

"I'm sorry," Itachi replied.

"Do not worry, we will be rid of her in a while, when Nagato comes to me, she will be gone,"

"And in exactly... how long?" Itachi could hear fear in his voice.

"Oh, my, Itachi-kun, don't tell me you've started caring for her?" "Madara" asked.

"Don't sprout such nonsense,"

"Very well than. I will contact you in three years. By then, the new group will have formed. The Akatsuki,"

The Akatsuki was actually a good group, freeing villages and things. It didn't seem like "Madara," or whoever the hell this was, to join the group. But knowing "Madara," he probably had plans for it.

* * *

**And cut! :D :D :D :D :D I'M SO HAPPY! I HAS FINISHED THE SECOND CHAPTER :D sorry, took me forever, writers block on my other stories that were perhaps more ... prioritized than this?**

***dodges tomatoes and squash***

**I'm sorry guys...**

***avoids more tomatoes***

***runs away***

***throws a sign that says REVIEW on it***


	3. Chapter 3

"Muahahahaha!" Naruto laughed evilly.

"Noooooo, that's not an evil laugh!" Itachi replied, because she wasn't very good at it.

"SEE?! I GOT IT! I got it, I got it! Look! Every single one, in there!" Naruto indicated all of the kunai stuck perfectly in the targets, including the one behind the wall.

"Okay, okay, I'll treat you to ramen,"

Naruto was humming happily, though she had bags under her eyes and was slouching. Having stayed up all night, she threw the kunai and shuriken. Then she read half of the books. When Itachi came back, and stole the books by sealing them.

They went to the ramen stand, and after eating thirty bowls, being tired and eating extra for energy, she immediately fell asleep.

"Jeez, I'll just carry her to Suna," Itachi muttered to himself. It was raining hard, so Itachi decided to collect rain water to travel across the lands (**A/N: searching far and wide, duh duh duh, to catch them, is my real test, to train them is my cause... pokemon! okay I'll stop**). He bought two water bottles, and carried them out to the edge of Amekagure. He had a water seal prepared, though he wasn't the best, he only knew basic seals. Doing a few suiton jutsus, and carrying a few gallons of water per seal, he completed sealing the scrolls, then went on to fill up the water bottles. He strapped one to Naruto's belt, and strapped one to his own belt. Itachi then cut a bunch of wood for fire, and sealed them too. If you're going to ask how many storage seals Itachi had, he brought... many.

He picked up Naruto, throwing her on his back, while all the scrolls with seals were in Naruto's backpack.

He began to walk. An extreme weather change, on the border of Amekagure and Suna, the rain had stopped, then slowly, it began turning into sand. So much sand. He trudged across slowly, his feet digging into the sand. Finally, after getting annoyed with the sand in his boots, he took them off, and threw them into the backpack. He unsealed his weight seals, and began running. Speeding across the sand.

The only thing that was annoying him, was that his feet were starting the burn up, and he couldn't stay too long in one spot. But it was quite okay, because he was running. Sand was trailing behind him as he ran, faster, and faster.

He began adding chakra to his feet to stay atop the sand. And... it worked. He wondered why he didn't think of that before. But he continued running. Small sand dunes were forming. Without difficulty, he ran atop the sand dune, and over, almost sliding down. He continued running.

* * *

After a long long long... time of running, Itachi was finally out of breath. He stopped channeling chakra into his feet, and set up a regular cloth tent. He always used doton before, because it was too much of a pain. Now there aren't many rocks (if you don't count the sand) so he didn't have too much material. He set up two fuuton, layed Naruto in one, and pulled his backpack next to him. It was around four o'clock, and he was starving. He pulled out cup ramen, yes, that was one of his many foods, and unsealed a bit of water from the first supply into the pot of water he had. He then took out a single piece of gigantic firewood (the trees were pretty big back then, remember?) and lit it on fire.

He stuck four metal sticks into the ground, which had a grill, and he put it over the fire, along with the pot. His feet began to burn, so he shook the sand out of his boots, as he wore them. Sighing, he fell backwards onto the warm sand, and waited to hear boiling noises. So... tired... he closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Naruto had woken at the sound of boiling. She wondered where she was. And Itachi was snoring shortly underneath the fuuton. She climbed out of the covers, and cup ramen was in his hand. She evilly grinned as she snatched that up, and poured the now boiling water into it. She sat next to Itachi, noticing that they were on sand. After counting the entire damn three minuets, a steaming hot cup ramen sat in front of her. Chopsticks, she looked around, then looked at Itachi's hand, which had two wooden chopsticks. Grinning, she mixed the ramen, then began to eat.

After the delicious meal, she dragged Itachi over to the fuuton, and managed to get him inside. It resulted to sand in his pants.

Naruto looked through his backpack, and found a scroll marked, "ramen," she pressed too much chakra into the first one. Cup ramen came out. She looked through the scrolls once again, and found one named "water," she once again, pressed too much chakra into this one, resulting in the pot filling up too high and it squirting out, all over onto the sand. Unfortunate. She put the remaining water onto the still burning firewood, and quickly pretended she didn't do anything, putting the scroll back. And then she waited for it to boil. Because the pot was filled up, it took longer, but she poured the water in the cup, and left the rest to continue boiling.

After eating the next ramen, she unsealed another, and poured the remaining boiling water into the pot. Itachi woke up suddenly, then ran over, seeing Naruto had another cup ramen in her hand.

"Aw..." Itachi snatched the cup from her, "my ramen, you ate the first cup didn't you?"

"Yeah," Naruto was grinning.

"Ah, jeez, go study or something, you were sleeping all day,"

"Where are we?"

"On the way to Suna,"

"Oh, okay," she pulled out the one marked books, "I tried pressing chakra into these..."

"Here,"

She tossed the scroll to him, and he bit his finger, blood coming out. He swiped the entire scroll, and books fell out. She took them to her corner of the tent, and began reading. Itachi was making hungry slurping noises. She noticed that her side had a water bottle. She drank as she read.

* * *

Of course, now she couldn't sleep. Naruto sighed, having finished the books. She barely understood them, but she read them anyways. The bits of information she could understand was fairly interesting though.

"You were sleeping all day, it would only be natural that you can't sleep at night," Itachi said, having woken up. It was night, and it was freezing. Wind blew across, and the fire roared. She shivered, hugging herself into her blankets.

"Try meditating. More of it, and it will start awakening your chakra, and you can organize your thoughts,"

"Okay,"

"It'll also give you sixty percent of your sleep needed in a day, because you are always forty percent awake. Ninjas use this method during the night time so they will always be aware of attack,"

"Why don't you do it?"

"Like I said, sixty percent of sleep. One hundred is always the best, because you won't be exhausted when you fight,"

"Oh," Itachi was quiet. She crossed her legs, and began to draw up the information she read.

Once again, she was within the deep, dark, sewers, in front of the kyuubi.

"Child, you looked at my first memories, didn't you?" the deep and dark voice said.

"Yeah, and I know your name," she smiled. The kyuubi scoffed.

"So... what do you think of me?"

"You aren't all that bad, Konoha was the only village you've ever attacked... right?" the kyuubi sighed.

"I caused you all this pain," the kyuubi said, "and yet you speak to me..."

"Aww, the king of demons feeling _sad?"_

"Shut it," the deep red eye closed, "you'll still treat me the same anyways. Just like the rest of those Jinchuuriki." A strong emotion lingered in the air. It wasn't anger, though it was wonderfully disguised in anger. The deep red eye opened, revealing years and years of nothing but sadness.

"You were hated too, weren't you?" the scar on her back began stinging again.

"I don't care anymore, leave, go explore your mind," Naruto wondered where one might "organize thoughts".

"Bye-bye," Naruto ran off, looking for someplace where she could organize the memories. Sure, the barrels were looking into the past, but they had nothing to do with... Apart from the corridor in which she saw herself, what was the next thing?

She ran towards the next corridor, and... she was in a small room. The room was quite small, dusty, and had a single small bookshelf. It was messy, books and scrolls thrown everywhere, the desk was fallen, and the overhead light barely flickered. She coughed up the dust, and left the room door open, hoping to let air out. A broom. She needed a broom.

A broom appeared in the corner of the room. Wait, did that mean...? She concentrated hard, willing for the room to be clean. But nothing moved. She sighed. A duster? A duster appeared in her hand. She dusted off the shelves of the book case, put the desk back up again, and dusted that off. In the drawers were her drawings she had created back when she was in Konoha. They were strewn all over the drawers, and so she picked them up, organizing them by date, and she put them back into the drawer.

In the next drawer, was a bunch of files. They were neatly organized, and she picked one out. In it, was a person's face, and what they were like. She put it back, closing the drawer. She put up the fallen chair, and began piling up the scrolls and books on top of the desk, deciding she'd organize them after she swept. She began sweeping, the dust almost dissolved within midair. The dust seemed to disappear from the air as well. She began putting the scrolls neatly into the shelves, and the room looked... well... it looked much cleaner.

A desk on the corner, a chair by it, no papers sticking out of the drawer. The ground was a grey cement color, and the walls were a pale white. The door was simply wooden, and had a golden doorknob. A small two layered wooden shelf had books inside of it, the bottom shelf, and the top shelf had all of the scrolls in it. She began reading once more, but this time, the information just came to her, and she finished two books within fifteen minuets. Continuing, she read all of the scrolls and books, and all of them, she had read before.

The room represented the information she knew. The only part she didn't understand was the drawings. Sure, knowing people and what they were about was information, but drawings... weren't information. Perhaps knowing artwork was information? There was one picture in there that ji-ji drew, and gave to Naruto. They were playing together once, when he had time.

Naruto felt like she knew much more. She snapped out of her meditation, and found herself extremely tired. Curling up into the blankets, she was asleep immediately.

* * *

Itachi woke up a bit earlier then Naruto, who woke almost immediately after. He had breakfast cooking, and Naruto's stomach growled. She rubbed her eyes, finding herself able to think clearly. It was interesting.

"Itachi-san, what does your mindscape look like?"

"Mindscape? Do you really want to see?"

"Yeah,"

Itachi turned on mangekyo, and took Naruto into his mindscape. They stood atop a bloody red bath, black crosses everywhere, the sky was a crimson red, and the moon was eerie and mysterious, yet it was also red.

"We have seventy two hours, and no time ever passes on the outside."

"Couldn't we train here?"

"We could, but it takes out an enormous energy," Itachi released it, not feeling like being trapped in his own world for seventy two hours.

"Wait, when I go into my mind, does less time happen on the outside?"

"You aren't scared of my mindscape?"

"Nah, mine are in the sewers, we're just sorta standing on water. Everything's rusty,"

"I can go in there,"

"Cool, wait, why?"

"I never taught you about kekkai genkai, have I?"

"Nope," Naruto gulped down the rest of her ramen.

"Oh, yeah, you're going to slow me down a lot, so for the next few days, we'll be learning to channel chakra,"

"What do you mean?"

"With chakra, you can stick to the surface, without worrying about sinking into the sand and wasting needless energy, only improving stamina... maybe speed,"

"Oh,"

"Okay, now, climb up a sand dune without using your hands," Itachi indicated a sand dune right by them, at least one hundred feet tall.

"WHAT THE HELL?"

"Oh right, we can't move anywhere _until _you learn to channel chakra,"

"NUUUUUUU!"

"Okay, this is how," Itachi began channeling chakra at his feet, and he made sticky chakra, as well as water walking chakra mixed together. Sticky chakra helped him walk up vertically, and water chakra kept him at the surface. Then he realized the problem. Naruto would have to learn each one individually, before mixing them together.

Well, for tsukyome, he could take the person to anyplace, but it just took a bit more energy.

"Wait, there's a problem..." Itachi walked back down, seeing Naruto's amazed face, "we're going to have to begin with tree climbing. Look at me in the eye,"

**(A/N: I am speeding through this part, because we all know the details of these two types of training)**

Naruto complied, and he was taken to a detailed world, right outside of Konoha, "We have seventy two hours, and I will teach you how to mold chakra on your feet. First, we will do the leaf sticking exercise. This is what chakra feels like," he took Naruto's hand and added chakra.

"Okay..."

"Here's a leaf, you will do this," he took a leaf for himself, and stuck it to the bottom of his hand. He turned his hand upside down, Naruto expected to fall out of place. It didn't.

For the next seventy two hours, Naruto, having awakened her chakra previously at the academy, eventually managed to get it. She wasn't tired, and Itachi was watching the entire time.

After she managed to get the leaf to stick to her hand, she could do it all over her body, forehead, foot, other hand, and all of it.

"Good, now I will cancel this, and we will apply this in real life, and see if it works,"

She was back in the sand again, but no time had passed. The water still hadn't boiled yet.

"Okay," Itachi took a bit of sand, and stuck it to his hand. It worked. Naruto tried, it worked.

"Great, we can continue the next two exercises," he looked into her eye again, this time, appearing by a stream, and with trees.

"Walk up trees,"

"How...?"

He walked vertically up the tree.

"No way! Sweet!" Naruto smiled.

"Try a running start, and keep chakra constant at the bottom of your feet,"

"Okay," so she tried, but before she got anywhere, she simply fell down, "Ugh."

"Concentrate a bit before you do it, try and remember how it feels, the leaf sticking. But instead of that, you are sticking to something else,"

"Okay," so this time, she tried, but she only got a bit more up the tree.

"Try marking your progress with a kunai," he said, throwing her a kunai. He sat down and began meditating. Naruto gritted her teeth, and began climbing up again, once more.

She tried and tried. Barely below half way up the tree, the tsukyome canceled, having been three days, and Itachi sighed.

"You have enormous amounts of chakra... but let's continue," the effects of pain hadn't came yet. Perhaps after four times, it would happen. The water still hadn't boiled yet. Itachi looked into her eyes once again.

She was once again in the trees. She began running once again, and Itachi went back to meditation.

After a long time, she managed to reach the top of the tree. Indeed, she was tired, and breathless, but she wasn't tired, as in sleep tired. For four days straight, she had been trying to reach the top of the tree. And she managed it.

"Okay, take a brake for the next few hours," Itachi grinned. She collapsed, sleeping instantly. But the interesting thing was she... still wasn't tired, simply breathless. Sitting down, and meditating next to Itachi. Even though the grass blowing and the trees whispering was fake, it was still relaxing.

She went into her own mindscape once more. She wondered if she could walk up walls. So she tried, and it worked. But she was already walking on the water already. Wondering why she had never looked down, she did. And it was endless. The water didn't stop. There was no bottom. It simply... went on forever.

She wondered if she could go down. So she tried, and... it didn't work. She simply stayed at the top of the water.

Hmm... whatever. She decided to continue exploring. So she went into the fourth corridor. It simply endlessly continued. She continued walking... and walking... and walking... and walking...

"IS THIS LIKE THE FUTURE OR SOMETHING?" she yelled down the empty hallways. Indeed it was, but unfortunately our hero can't see what it was. The laws of the universe won't allow it. So she spent her entire time walking back towards the direction of the kyuubi's cage.

But she was shaken out of the meditation quickly, by Itachi.

"Okay, we will begin water walking, this is how," Itachi walked on top of the stream that was right next to the trees.

Naruto tried, "instead of simply sticky chakra, it's chakra that pushes you up, rather than simply sticking to the water,"

"Okay," she said once more. So she tried, continuously falling down and getting her clothes all wet. A day passed. She could barely manage to stay above the water. The next day, she continued, and after the tsukyome canceled, she was able to walk atop water and trees.

"Good, now we mix the two together," Itachi began packing up the tents and all of that. Only the water boiling was left. He waited... and Naruto immediately stole the water, pouring it into her cup ramen, still hungry.

She finished the ramen, and applied both of the two together, to sand dune walking. They ran across the dunes easily. Two days until they reached Suna.

* * *

After not training for two days, only running, Naruto had become much better at chakra control, and improved her speed by a lot.

They reached the sandy walls of Suna, and the two guards were there, asking for passes. Itachi had disguised himself, and his pass. The guy let him and Naruto in.

"Alright, we continue training, first, we have to get suitable clothing for Suna," he said. Once again, the two walked into the ninja clothing store, soaked to the feet by sweat.

The clerk smiled happily, and the two were unsure what to do. Racks of different kind of clothing. There were the thick heavy coats, mainly for the night, the sand coats, which you wore during a sandstorm, or simple regular clothing. All of them protected the shoulders and back. Anything else could be exposed.

At the moment, Naruto only wanted something cold. So she immediately picked out a vest jacket, exposing the entire arms, but it had a hood. It was black, and the zipper ran across the side of it. Underneath, was a regular crimson red T-shirt that had the same build as Sasuke's, which was a bit painful for Itachi. Her arm warmers were black, with crimson lining, which painfully reminded Itachi of Sasuke, more. Except, Naruto was red, and Sasuke was blue. She kept her pants and boots, not wanting sand to get anywhere within reach. She wanted to change into shorts, but it would be obvious she was a female then.

Itachi wore a black short sleeved T-shirt that he already had, along with long pants... that he already had, and regular ninja sandals.

The two kept a room for the night. Naruto took a long... long... shower... and... all... the water... was cold... so it was hell when Itachi took it. He did a katon jutsu and used the remains of his own water take a bath.

Itachi went to the library, and Naruto went exploring.

* * *

Naruto sighed, a long day of training. She went out for a walk. A little boy, but her age, was also walking. He was... cute. They... had the same hair color. Hmm... interesting. He passed by the Kazekage muttering, "Father." His father, or the Kazekage, was looking down upon the little boy... frighteningly cold eyes.

Shouts were heard behind her. The little boy continued walking for a while, and went onto the roof. Naruto followed him.

"Yashimaru," the little boy cried to the darkness. Several kunai all of a sudden came out of no where. _Oh crap, he's in danger._

She looked at the boy, who was completely confused, "huh?" none of the kunai hit, all blocked by sand.

Shinobi of the sand, judging by the forehead protector threw more kunai at the boy. But Naruto couldn't make it in time. Wait... what? Sand rose up, protecting the boy.

"Why me?!" the boy asked, sand rose up, curling around the shinobi.

The ninja was all of a sudden smashed against the wall, obviously injuring him.

"Who..." the little boy pulled down the mask the ninja was wearing.

"Impressive, Gaara-sama," the boy's eyes widened, his hand came up, clutching his heart.

He screamed. It wasn't any normal scream. It was a scream of agony, and pain. But... the boy wasn't hurt anywhere.

"Why? Why... why is it? Why you? Why me?" the boy cried. Somehow, Naruto felt like she should blend in the background.

"You, you were always... you were my only..."

"It was an order," the ninja said, "I was ordered to kill you. By your father, Kazekage-sama."

From his eyes, more tears fell. He threw up, clutching his heart.

"Father? Why... would he want me dead?"

"You were born to be possessed by Shukaku, until today, you have been watched over as an experimental subject, however, you were unable to control your powers of the living spirit of Shukaku, and before long, your existence will become a danger to the village itself. We simply couldn't let it happen."

The boy paused, for a moment, "Then you had no choice. It was because of father,"

"No, you're mistaken, I had the choice to decline. Gaara-sama, deep down, I think, I must have always hated you. For coming into this world... for stealing my dear sister away from me... I tried my best to love you, thinking of you as her memory, but I couldn't... she never wished to give birth to you, she was sacrificed for this villages and therefore died... cursing it. Perhaps from then on, I've been carrying never healing emotional scars. Your mother gave you your name, 'This child is named Gaara a demon that only loves himself,' only fight for yourself. Only fight for your sake... she wished that your existence is forever as long as you live so... But she didn't give you the name out of love or concern for you. She gave it to you in the hope of your eternal existence... to let her grudge be carried down and be known to the world, you were never loved."

Tears began spilling out of Naruto's own eyes, silently, as she watched this scene unfold.

"This is it... please die," the ninja unzipped his jacket, underneath, was all explosive tags. Naruto hid behind the building, and all of a sudden, a huge explosion. She ran to see if the boy was okay, Gaara. He was protected by the sand, his bangs covering his eyes.

"It's just like me... isn't it?" Naruto said sadly, her hiding spot, gone.

_It cut into her back... she was screaming... "Why are you doing this?"_

The boy looked up, tear stroked face.

_They looked down at her, unforgivable eyes... _

She went over towards him, "Who was that...?"

"You... aren't afraid of me?"

"Why should I be?"

"Uaah," he sobbed, more tears streaming down his face.

"Hey, hey... it's okay," Naruto didn't know what to say, she walked towards him, he was hugging his own knees.

"You... don't think I'm a monster...?"

_Demon!_

_Monster!_

_Die you scum!_

_Your'e but a monster!_

_Go away!_

_Don't hang out with her!_

She couldn't stand it anymore. This boy... thought he was a monster?

"You aren't a monster..." she quietly said.

"Why? Why did... Yashimaru...?"

"You knew him?" Naruto indicated the destructed building.

"He... he was my uncle," the boy hugged his knees tighter. A horrible feeling overcame her, it was the feeling of the monster himself. The boy looked straight at her, piercing green eyes, suddenly flashing red.

_Like the kyuubi._

* * *

Gaara was confused. The other boy had seen it all... and the other boy also saw him kill Yashimaru. But he wasn't afraid?

Something warm was happening. Arms were wrapped tightly around Gaara. He looked up, and the boy, with violet eyes... was crying. Why was he crying?

* * *

Tears ran down Naruto's face. She had hugged him...

"Why are you crying?" Gaara asked.

"Because it's unfair," Naruto replied, tears falling down her face.

"Unfair?"

"Life... life is unfair. We live such horrible lives... and... yet... this is what happens?"

"You... what would you know?" Gaara was bitter.

"What would I know?" he smiled, "I know everything... you're like me aren't you? You have Shukaku inside of you, and we both know... the villagers are a bunch of idiots. I just recently came here, and I've always hoped, there'd be no one like me, anywhere else. But there are... people like you, people like me... you aren't wanted here,"

"Wh-what's your name?" the boy asked.

Naruto laughed a bit, "Me? Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto,"

"Subaku no Gaara..." he introduced himself.

"Um... how did you know... Shukaku?"

"I was listening. I was passing by, and I heard it all... Yashimaru, was it?"

"Yeah," he said quietly.

"He was precious to you... wasn't he?"

"The only... one, and... now he's gone... he... hates me,"

Naruto's bangs were covering her eyes, "What kind of father..."

"It's... It's okay..." he wiped his face.

"Come on, there's no one for you here," Naruto patted Gaara on the head.

"B-but..."

"It was the same back at home too, Gaara. It's not going to get any better, leave, and less pain... everything will be happier. People will treat you normally. I do know, anywhere else you go in this godforsaken village, you will hate,"

* * *

Gaara was only too happy to agree. the two of them walked towards the inn, where Itachi was. The receptionist was asleep. They walked up the stairs, and Naruto knocked on the door.

"Ugh, hold on," the door swung open, revealing a thirteen year old boy, red eyes, in pajamas, "Naruto... who's this?"

"Gaara, is it okay if he stays with us?"

"I'm not a babysitter... I only agreed too the Sandaime's request," Itachi sighed, and rubbed his head.

"C'mon, pleaaaase?"

"Who's his parents?"

"The Kazekage, and mom is dead," the boy said bluntly.

"Definitely not..."

"C'mon, his dad tried to kill him!" this worked like magic. Itachi's eyes drooped a bit, inside, he was angry, but he didn't exactly show it.

"Your father tried to kill you?"

"Yes..." Gaara said shyly.

"What kind of... you know what? We're leaving Suna tomorrow... to Iwa,"

"WHAT?! But... I thought Ishigakure was... closer,"

"Shush! You're going to wake everyone up. C'mon in. The Kazekage was always a bastard but to go this far... I know we've been traveling a lot, but just bare with it. If you want Gaara to come, we're going to have to leave the village. I was intending on settling here for a while... besides, Ishigakure, though it may be closer, it's infested with Samuri, and the bond between Ninja and Samurai have been weakening. Should even the most insane missing nin, other than the mentally challenged ones, enter that country, the Samurai could lead the next Samurai Ninja war, which hasn't happened for hundreds of years, and even their numbers still show how few the samurai were."

"Thank you... but... couldn't they be eliminated quickly?" Naruto asked. Itachi sighed, thinking he was getting too soft. Well... he wasn't as thirteen year old _should _be. But he was rather soft ever since leaving Konoha. He answered.

"Don't underestimate Samurai. Kenjutsu is their specialization, and kenjutsu is one of the strongest arts, not even Ninja can learn to their extent. This brings up another question, where are you going to sleep?" there were two beds.

"I... I don't sleep. If I do Shukaku will take over my soul..."

"This is worse than I thought. The Ichibi?" Itachi sighed once more, "well... don't sleep than. Sorry, I'll get someone to fix your seal eventually."

The three awkwardly walked into the room, and Gaara sat in the corner quietly, when all of a sudden, Naruto was snoring. He laughed a bit to himself. Gaara's eyes were feeling droopy once more. Itachi handed him the books he had gotten for Naruto, and a small light. Itachi went to sleep himself.

* * *

The two were up in the morning, and shouts were heard. "Find the demon! He can't have gotten far!" Gaara's hands were shaking, his green eyes averted downwards.

"We have to leave, quickly," Itachi said, shaking Naruto awake. He put a ten layered genjutsu over Gaara, then cast a three layer henge over himself.

They walked past the guard, without a bit of trouble. Naruto was already running towards Iwa, and Itachi was too. Gaara was barely able to keep up. Seeing this, Itachi carried Gaara on his back, and they ran... towards an unknown country.


End file.
